A lot of things have changed within the span of weeks. Given the contagious nature of coronavirus, the entire globe is in state of havoc with each country trying to take measures to reduce the spread of virus.
Offices have either shut down or employees asked to work inside home premises. In my case, its now been 2 weeks I am working from home. The exam I was studying for got postponed for another 8 months at the minimum and all of the sudden, I have a lot of spare time in my hand.
I have been trying to stay grateful at this time as I have been wanting to read books or simply move my hand on the canvas and paint out my imagination but was always busy with one thing or another.
So in the past week while I was working from home, I did painting using acrylic paints for the first time and this is what it turned out to be:
Here goes the quote of Rumi “Inside you there’s an artist you don’t know about.”
1)Dervish : This painting is after being inspired by Sufism. It shows a mystical connection between a person and God. Dervish is a wanderer and dances in circles to get divine message and attain spirituality. The person is free from the worldly affairs and wants to connect with higher being.
2) Alhamduillah: Second painting is to thank God for all the countless blessings which a person forgets if one of his/her desires has not been fulfilled or answered by God. After all, “What’s meant for you will reach you even if it’s beneath two mountains, and what’s not meant for you won’t reach you even if it’s between your two lips”. We should remain calm, be a better person and have patience, tawaqqul for our desires to be accomplished.
3) Evil Eye Protection: I have seen a lot of souvenirs from Turkey and Syria with a blue eye. It is said to be a belief that having a blue eye in the house protects against Nazr i.e. evil eye. Given the current condition of entire earth and seeing the photo of mother earth wearing a mask flooding the social media, I was motivated to make this painting with the hope that the world will recover from coronavirus soon.
4) Old Lahore: Having lived in Lahore for four years, I loved the old city especially Mochi Gate, Delhi gate and purani anarkali. The buildings although old have vibrant colors and the houses are so close that women can pass the food dishes through windows. The people are poor but lively ‘zinda dil’.
5) SeaView Karachi: Do you wanna have a sair of Karachi with Raju (a.k.a the famous seaview Camel)? This photo is a depiction of my favorite child hood memory of going to seaview with my family and enjoying the thandi hawa of karachi while the rest of the city is polluted.
6) Chai: The last painting for now is a fun one I made as I was missing Pakistan while being away from family at this time. Chai (tea) is the most popular drink in Pakistan and there is a lot of variety with my favorite being Elaichi chai (cardamom tea). Chai has alot of cultural significance and I did something similar to truck art on kettle.
Someone please get me garm garm jaleibi to dip in my doodhpatti… a combination to die for 😛
I made four more paintings and you can see my quarantine wall. Grateful to paint again after a gap of around a decade because of the busy routine. I have been seeing loads of people do cooking, baking, sewing, learning music etc. Although, the situation is tough..on a positive side, we would have learned a new skill by the time things get to routine.
Adios!
DreamerofPeace 